Interstate judge may have to be called in for Tony Mokbel’s high-profile appeal

Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel is fighting to walk free from prison in a much-anticipated hearing that will involve senior judges and former prosecutors called as witnesses.

Senior Victorian judges and top former prosecutors will be called to give evidence in the high-profile appeal of drug kingpin Tony Mokbel as he fights to walk free from jail.

Supreme Court Justice John Champion, who was previously the Director of Public Prosecutions, is expected to be called as a witness by Mokbel – known as “Fat Tony” – in the convicted crim’s bid for freedom over the Lawyer X scandal.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard that an interstate judge may now have to be called in, potentially delaying the October start date of a highly anticipated drug-trafficking hearing.

That hearing, set down for seven weeks, will answer crucial questions and the information will then be sent up to the Court of Appeal to be relied upon in the substantive hearing, which is yet to get a confirmed start date.

Mokbel lawyer Julie Condon KC told the court that ­another former DPP, Jeremy Rapke KC, and former senior Crown prosecutor Geoffrey Horgan SC, were also on the gangland figure’s witness list.

Mokbel is fighting to walk free from prison.

The drug baron – who was once one of Australia’s most wanted fugitives when he skipped bail in 2006 on cocaine smuggling charges and fled to Greece – launched an appeal in 2017 over his dealings with barrister-turn-police informer Nicola Gobbo.

Dubbed Lawyer X by the Herald Sun, which exposed the fiasco after a years-long multimillion-dollar court fight, she was Mokbel’s go-to lawyer from the 1990s to 2007.

His conviction over the 3kg of cocaine imported from Mexico in 2006 was quashed in 2020 after it was found that Gobbo poisoned his trial by representing him at the bar table.

Mokbel remains behind bars over other drug charges and is trying to scratch as many convictions as possible.

Mokbel was once one of Australia’s most wanted fugitives when he skipped bail in 2006.

Presiding over a hearing for Mokbel’s appeal on Monday, Justice Stephen Kaye said given his colleague, Justice Champion, may be called to give evidence, it was his “strong position” that he’d have to recuse himself.

“It is regrettable but I think it is inevitable the way matters are,” His Honour said, noting that he would raise the issue with Chief Justice Anne Ferguson.

The court heard that for “appearances sake” there were issues with having Justice Champion called, and the matter would “probably need an interstate judge to hear it”. Justice Kaye said the issue might mean Mokbel’s October 2 hearing date may not be able to go ahead.

Mokbel is among almost two dozen crooks fighting their sentences and convictions over the Lawyer X scandal, with one of Victoria’s most notorious gangland figures soon to face court.

Drug lord Rob Karam, who played a lead role in the 2007 Tomato Tins ecstasy importation, is expected to have his appeal heard before the end of the year.

Karam was the first to challenge his conviction when Gobbo’s double dealings were exposed.

If he is successful in quashing his conviction, his appeal could serve as a test case for other criminals trying to fight their own matters.

Drug lord Rob Karam played a lead role in the 2007 Tomato Tins ecstasy importation.

Gobbo passed crucial intelligence onto police against Karam – who she’d acted for at times over a decade – and other gang members in the Tomato Tins syndicate, leading to one of the world’s biggest drug busts.

Since Gobbo was exposed as a snitch, 24 criminals have launched appeals claiming they were poisoned under the Lawyer X rule.

Of those, 20 people have appeals that remain on foot against their convictions, including drug kingpin Rocco Arico, crime boss and drug trafficker Frank Madafferi and two-time murderer Evangelos Goussis.

Faruk Orman walked away from jail in 2019 after he was sensationally acquitted of murder over the 2002 execution of underworld heavyweight Victor Peirce.

The infamous gangland figure was shot dead in his car in Port Melbourne, with Gobbo taking “active steps” to ensure a witness gave evidence against her client, Mr Orman, in his murder trial.

Mokbel and his drug cartel lieutenant Zlate Cvetanovski have already had years slashed from their sentences after they both had convictions quashed because of Lawyer X. They remain in custody as they continue to fight to have the rest of their charges dismissed.

Meanwhile, Carl Williams’ killer, Matthew Johnston, abandoned his appeal, Mokbel drug cook Stephen Gavanas had his dismissed, as did trafficker Jan Visser, who continues to fight a sentence.